Do you like watching other people play games?

[Palademon]

I used to watch my brother, as a child. So I can enjoy it.

I can also hate it and spend the entire time resist the urge to viciously backseat game.
If I have to watch someone that skips all cutscenes, spends forever doing nothing, and complains about the game not telling them what to do, I might end up assualting them.

 

[Fractral]

I used to in a sort of 'Oh wow flashy lights' kind of way. Nowadays I have my own games consoles so I find it a little less interesting, especially in FPS games. However, I do like watching my friends battle each other in pokemon, to see their tactics and the like. I've also read some of the battle stories in the smogon archive, some of them are really high quality.
Also in RTS games, where its amazing to see the skill of some players, and the speed at which they can manage things, such as people getting titans in Sins in 15 minutes.

 

[Rose and Thorn]

I loved watching my Ex lover play videogames, but no one since. I usually find it terribly boring, I often just leave if that is what is going on. Now this is real life stuff, and usually people that I don't like.

Now Youtube lets plays are different. It's more like a TV show. If you really admire people like TB and Jesse Cox, watching them play games is a hoot.

Also watching Scandinavians play roleplaying games like Skyrim is really cool. I mean the ones that actually ROLEPLAY. It is pretty interesting.

 

[FootloosePhoenix]

I used to watch my sister play games all the time, but that was mostly because when she was playing, I couldn't play and so I tried to fill the game-shaped void in my heart by observing or otherwise just had nothing better to do. It was great when we'd interact by exchanging strategies, laughing at absurd glitches or making fun of melodramatic cutscenes. That was some good sibling bonding time. But it wasn't so great watching her grind in Final Fantasy VIII. So sometimes I do like watching others play, sometimes I don't. It often depends on the game as well.

 

[dancinginfernal]

I become an asshole when I watch people play. I get bossy as fuck and backseat game like a mofo.

So no, I try not to.

 

[Secret world leader (shhh)]

Hanging out with my best friend usually involves one of us watching the other play/playing together/watching YouTube. It's pretty fun because we're either talking about something different or taking the piss out of the game. If you recorded it you could probably make a decent let's play series...huh...

 

[Kurt Horsting]

I watch e-sports (mostly fighting games and sc) so that by definition is watching others play.

 

[SirPlindington]

Don't mind it, but don't really like it either. Sometimes it's enjoyable, but sometimes it's boring.

 

[FalloutJack]

I watch me a good Longplay sometimes. Or a Let's Play. The difference is that nobody talks during the Longplay. Let's Plays, I watch because some of the commentary is funny. Saw a Mega Bomberman one where - among other things - the player was singing with the music and even had a comedic Christmas bonus episode sing-along that was not 'canon'.

 

[algalon]

Depends on the game and the person. Watching my niece play any game at all is all kinds of frustrating. She plays Burnout Paradise online and is repeatedly booted from games because she's annoying (she insists on using the mic). My nephew on the other hand enjoys progression - he plays games to beat them and not to just run in circles like Homer on a caffeine high. He only visits maybe 2-3 times a year but has a lv 85 raid-geared hunter on WoW as well as a 26 nord fighter in Skyrim. I try not to backseat drive when he plays but have helped with things like damage rotation and spending skill points. Having the PS3 and PC in the same room generally means that at any given time both will be occupied in some fashion so turning around and seeing how the other is doing is always interesting.

 

[sanquin]

I usually don't mind watching one of my friends play. He's really good at...pretty much all games. But especially super smash bros melee and guitar hero. Guitar hero he only ever plays custom songs since even the hardest stock songs are too easy for him. Super smash bros he can kick ass even 1 against 3. My brother is really good at SC2 as well, so that's sometimes fun to watch in between.

If the player is just average or sucks though then it usually infuriates me more than anything else. I'll be going "Why did you do that?!" and "No, you're supposed to do it like this!" in my head constantly.

 

[Fenra]

All depends on the person and the game

First it has to be a game I'm interested in, and second one that lends itself to observation, like an action game or certain RTS's like SC2. What doesnt work for me so much is large tactical games or sims, take a game of Civ or a total war campaign, for the person playing I'm sure its riveting, but doesnt lend itself to specating for me.

As for the person, well if I take my SC2 example, watching the high level guys play on youtube and stuff I really enjoy watching. For people on a more personal level, its fun to watch my friend mark play games because he has the greatest reactions. He has no filter between his brain and mouth so watching him play any action game / 3rd person shooter in the world is hillarions. Cant stand watching people like my brother though, no offence to him or others like him but he is awful at games and I'm not great but I'm at least compitent and it drives me up the wall watching him. To put in perspective, he stops to turn the camera in every game, cant seem to use both control sticks at a time, so in CoD for example, he will freeze on the spot to turn even an inch to the left.

Also one thing me and my friends do if we are hanging out and one of us is playing a single player game, we pass the controller on every death / game over. Recent example being 3 of us drinking with space marine (campaign on hardest difficulty) being played, 2 watch 1 plays, each time one person dies pass the controller to the next person... yeah me and my friends know how to live it up! /sarchasm

 

[Dragoon]

In real life I can't stand watching other people play, I usually get annoyed when they don't do something right or the way I would do it. But I do like watching playthroughs or clips on the net because I can't affect the game in any way.

 

[Easton Dark]

The people playing around me just miss so many obvious things... I can't stand it, I'll do it for them!

 

[kommando367]

If I like their commentary (like platform32 and SSOHPKC) and I'm really interested in the game they're playing, then yes.

 

[MPerce]

Depends on who it is. My older brother is alright at gaming, but just incompetent enough and in a bizarre enough way to be hilarious, so he is an absolute blast to watch play.

 

[Reaper195]

If you mean, I am doing nothing but watch someone else play a video game...then no. I'll get fucking bored because I'm not doing anything (Unless it's a rather cinematic game like Metal Gear Solid, Max Payne 3 (Wasn't much of a fan of the previous ones) or even something like The Longest Journey. As long as it has an actual narrative, I don't mind it so much.). But I don't mind watching people if I'm reading a book, or on the computer.

 

[Padwolf]

It depends on the situation. If it's a game I know like the back of my own hand, then I don't mind, that way I can be helpful to whoever is playing. Otherwise I really do not like it. I like to be playing. If it's someone who is completely new to the game I can't help but take the controller from them sometimes, I get impatient but it drives me up the wall sometimes watching them. I become completely different, I get bossy, I get snappy. I enjoy watching youtube let's plays though. I also enjoy watching my boyfriend play on Skyrim, but then he is good at it.

 

[greatcheezer2021]

i enjoy watching the choices other people make and the justifications i make in my head to stand by them and say, "that was a great course of action you took there &*$%@". usually, this is not the case.

i hate watching reviews or live streams or any form of video where people are just blabbing and blabbing and find every excuse to put their own dialogue over their shitty gameplay which is usually shitty enough to begin with already. people play a game i have interest in, and they say they have their interest greatly invested in this game and when they play, it simply just doesnt show. it pisses me off to no REASON to see somebody play something so haphazardly the game designer would come out and slap the players mother for allowing them to be so stupid in the first place. people either stream the same shit or review the same crap while spewing and presenting the same crap that has already been crapped out by some other "professional" crapsack.

when it comes down to pure imagination and creativity, like the sims, civilization, rollercoaster tycoon, any map editor or other simulator its always fun to watch. FPS can be entertaining because of the situations a player can be put in. third person shooter is always frustrating because of the players ineptitude or cowardice, tho it fun to watch the struggle. RTS can be objective at times, as you can learn from people what to do and not to do. platformer can only be described by the freedom of control. open world games of the sandbox variety can show how creative a person is in scenarios and how much fun they can have, meanwhile bending the rules of the world to their whim. im done talking now.

 

[Miyenne]

Yeah, I do.

My mom used to game all the time when we were kids. My sister and I would just sit and watch her for hours, as she was much more coordinated than us. And she was the grown up so she won the fights for the tv.

As we got older and my sister and I always stuck together, and as we prefer RPGs one of us always ends up playing and the other watching. It's normal for us. We switch off every once in a while.

I tend to make my sister play more often though. I enjoy sitting back and watching her play, as our play styles are pretty much exactly the same. She hates that I don't play as much as her though, as she likes to watch too.